Why People Stayed Home During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Implications for Health Communication Across Four Countries.

Staying at home substantially reduces the spread of COVID-19. Moreover, understanding why people stayed at home by addressing its social cognitive determinants can help create more effective communication to change behaviors. This study analyzed this outcome through an extended model of the theory of planned behavior based on risk perception and personal norms in four countries: the United States, Japan, Brazil, and Taiwan. 1,196 individuals participated in this study through a questionnaire focused on planned behavior, moral norms, and risk perception. The data showed that intention and perceived behavioral control influenced behavior significantly, while attitude, injunctive norms, perceived behavioral control, personal norms, and risk perception influenced intention. With multigroup analysis and ANOVA, we verified significant differences in the estimates and mean scores across cultures, revealing the need for scholars to analyze outcomes based on geography and local political culture. Given that health communications played a key role in managing the pandemic, this study clarifies the social cognitive determinants of staying at home and how the local political culture can impact their influence. Thus, we provide an evidence-based prescription for focused communications.

Prolonged sedentary time under the state of emergency during the first wave of coronavirus disease 2019: Assessing the impact of work environment in Japan.

OBJECTIVES: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak and the resulting state of emergency have restricted work environments, which may contribute to increased duration of sedentary behaviors. This study investigated the self-reported sedentary time of Japanese workers during and after the first state of emergency (April 7 to May 25, 2020) and examined differences in sedentary time after starting work from home and according to job type. METHODS: We used cross-sectional data from the Japan COVID-19 and Society Internet Survey, a web-based questionnaire survey conducted from August to September 2020 (n = 11,623; age range 15-79 years; 63.6% male). Prolonged sedentary time was calculated by subtracting the sedentary time after the state of emergency (defined as the normal sedentary time) from that during the emergency, with adjustments using inverse probability weighting for being a respondent in an internet survey. RESULTS: An increase in sedentary time of at least 2 hours was reported by 12.8% of respondents who started working from home during the state of emergency, including 9.7% of salespersons and 7.7% of desk workers. After adjusting for potential confounders, the multivariate-adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for a prolonged sedentary time ≥2 hours was significantly higher in respondents who started to work from home (OR: 2.14, 95% confidence interval: 1.78-2.57), and certain job types (desk workers; OR: 1.56, 95% CI: 1.27-1.91, salespersons; OR: 2.03, 95% CI: 1.64-2.51). CONCLUSIONS: Working from home and non-physical work environments might be important predictors of prolonged sedentary time.